Present day computer applications such as word processors provide to a user convenient mechanisms for creating, editing and viewing text-based documents in a variety of text formats. For example, standard font families such as Arial and Times New Roman and their base typefaces are used by millions of users on a daily basis to create or edit documents. A typeface, such as “Bold” or “Italic” is a common visual mechanism to create emphasis for text in printed documents and documents presented on a digital display.
Typically, a word processing program may provide to a user the ability to select a given font family, such as Times New Roman, from a variety of font families to present text of a document being edited or created. The word processing program may also allow the user to select from among multiple typefaces, which are sometimes referred to as “font styles” to be used in conjunction with a given font family. Thus, “Bold” typeface may be used with a Times New Roman font family to produce text that yields a Time New Roman Bold font. For text emphasis, word processors typically provide the ability to select a portion of the characters of a text document, such as a specific words or sentences, to be presented in a first typeface, such as “Bold.” Other portions of the text document may be presented in a second typeface, such as a standard, non-bold typeface so that the text portions having Bolded typeface stand out from other text.
For documents other than text documents, other methods for emphasizing words have been developed in past generations. For example, “Kinetic Typography,” which is used primarily in film and television (TV), involves animation in which motion and text are mixed to convey a particular idea or motion.
More recently, advances in display technology, processing, and film, have created a growing market for three-dimensional (“3D” or “stereoscopic”) viewing of film, 3DTV, stereoscopic video games and computer displays. While depth has been used widely to present information such as images in 3D film and TV programming, depth is not employed in digital documents to convey emphasis.
Accordingly, there may be a need for improved techniques and apparatus to solve these and other problems.